Cong will increase expenditure on education: Rahul

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday assured students to increase the state expenditure on education and healthcare if voted to power.

Addressing concerns raised by students in an interaction, Rahul said he was of the view that the state must pay for large parts of the education as well as healthcare.

“State must support your education much more,” the Congress president said in pre-election consultation with university students titled 'Shiksha: Dasha aur Disha' here.

A large section of the audience at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium auditorium were first-time voters, a segment the Congress is wooing aggressively ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He claimed that under the Modi government there has been a sharp decline in spending on education.

“Thinking is clear that the government does not want to spend money on education. The government wants students to spend money on education. The industrialists are being helped through the privatisation of this sector,” Rahul said.

The Congress president also hit out at growing unemployment and accused the government of refusing to accept that there was a “job crisis” in the country.

He said India was creating 450 jobs in 24 hours, while China has been adding 50,000 to its workforce every day. “Our prime minister doesn't seem to think this is a problem,” Rahul claimed.

“We need to first acknowledge that there is a problem, and then we need to galvanise support to fight it. That is what we (Congress) believe in,” he said.

Rahul also promised if the Congress was voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections, his government would accord, by law, the status of “martyr” to those paramilitary troopers, who lose their lives in the line of duty.

“Paramilitary forces don't get martyr's status when they lay down their lives. If we form the government, we will give the status of martyrs to those paramilitary soldiers who lay down their lives in the line of duty,” he said responding to a question posed by a PhD scholar Shruti Gautam.